Residential Life is making changes to on-campus housing for freshmen and sophomores beginning in the fall.

[media-credit id=2019 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Mountainview will house only freshmen residents this fall due to the layout of the buildings and the number of incoming freshmen and sophomore residents, according to Residential Life. Meanwhile, sophomores will live in the suites or have Bakke Hall as an option, which is the smallest of the three Complex buildings.

 Suites include Perlroth and Troup, which can house approximately 150 students each. Associate Director of Residential Life Melissa Karipidis estimates that 20 percent of sophomores will live in the suites. However, Larson will still house freshmen. About 387 students can live in Mountainview, Karipidis said.

 Although Karipidis expects that this will be a permanent change, she said Residential Life considers making adjustments to on-campus living each year.

 “Every year we need to look at how many students we have, make a projection of how many [students] we’re going to retain,” she said. “We need to look at how many we are bringing in, and then making housing decisions accordingly.”

 Karipidis said the layout of the suites is not well-suited for freshmen and first-year students will benefit from living in Mountainview.

 “Sophomores are more independent than first-year students, so just the setup in the suites is more conducive to sophomore living,” she said. “While in Mountainview, there are more common spaces for students to gather in small pockets and I think that is better for first year students because they are trying to get here, get connected and meet other people.”

 Freshman and Perlroth resident Leah Schwartz said living in the suites does make it difficult to socialize in the hallways. Resident assistants and Public Safety tell students to go inside their dorms when they stand in the hallways, she said.

 However, sophomore Caitlin Phillips had a different experience living in a suite her freshman year and Mountainview this year.

 “I liked my freshman year so much because of the suites,” Phillips said. “It was a way to meet people. Mountainview is so isolated. Going from a suite to Mountainview, it is not as open. You don’t really get to meet a lot of people.”

 Phillips’ roommate Alyssa Stalzer believes living in Mountainview could prevent freshmen from being active on campus.

 “[Mountainview] is really far away from everything on campus,” Stalzer said. “I feel like they want freshmen to get involved and get outside of their rooms. There are some days, especially when the weather is bad, we just live in [our dorm] all day.”

 Schwartz said she is disappointed she may have to live in the suites again next year.

 “I feel like it would be weird to come back and be in the same size room,” she said. “I feel like as you get older it is kind of a privilege to be in bigger rooms and get better amenities.”

The suites do not have kitchens like Complex or The Hill, but Karipidis said this makes the suites similar to The Village or Mountainview, where students have a full meal plan. The majority of sophomores live in The Village.

The suites were also originally sophomore buildings up until the fall 2009.

 “This is not new for us,” Karipidis said. “When we actually originally made the change to make [the suites] first-year buildings, it was a big deal. How can you take the suites away from the sophomores?”